Category: Potty Training

When it comes to potty training, my faithful, tried, and true advice remains:

It doesn’t matter when your toddler is ready for potty training. If you’ve even considered starting it, they probably are. It’s a matter of when YOU are ready to deal with the messy floors and messy pants.

When my daughter chose the Fourth of July to declare her independence (from diapers), I did not flinch an inch. It all started because she refused to wear a diaper. For all I know, this could have been because she’s almost two and trying to push her agenda any way that she can. Or, she really could be done with diapers. Either way, I just went with it.

She was so enthusiastic when I suggested we try using the potty instead; how could I not go along with it, right?

This reaction, by the way, is typical for me. I’m more likely to ask “why not?” instead of “why”.  I’m also not one to go halfway… on anything. So, when Lou decided she was done with diapers, I didn’t hesitate to put her in a *clean* pair of Thomas the Tank Engine undies, a hand-me-down from her big brother.

(Don’t judge. It’s what I had available, okay! We can discuss whether or not that is gross later.)

My husband, on the other hand, proceeded to panic in the face of something new and different, because that response is typical of him.

Aaaaaand because Lou isn’t even TWO years old yet and may not have been entirely clear on the concept of “going potty”, it took her less than an hour to wet her pants.

“Not bad for a first time,” I thought. Meanwhile, Mike had already mustered himself into a full freak-out…

“No! No! No! That was baaaaad. Very bad, Lou. You made a mess. Now I have to clean up this MESS. Bad! Hiss. Hiss,” he yelled in exactly the way one is NOT supposed to approach potty training.

We tried again and again, but after an single day of false starts and more freaking out, two things became quite evident:

1. Lou may have been ready (or not). I was very ready, but Mike was definitely NOT ready…

2. I could kiss my visions and subsequent savings of a diaper-free life “Bu-bye” for now…

So, how fortuitous that I was recently asked to review the newly re-launched line of MomtoMom® diapers and training pants from Safeway.

What can one really say about a diaper? When it works and you don’t have to think about it, it’s great. When it doesn’t, that’s when you have plenty to say about it…

According to the press materials provided, MomtoMom® diapers “offer better leakage control, perfect fit waistband and tabs, an ultra absorbent core, and a super soft hypoallergenic liner with Aloe, Vitamin E, and organic botanicals.” The training pants were similar except they offered “easy open sides”, so you can pull the dirties off quicker.

That’s all good and well, but bottom line (pun intended) for me is, “Do they work?”

While Lou may not be able to give me a thorough critique of her new nappies, she does seem to find them far less objectionable than her previous ones. There have been no leaks, rashes, or accidents. In fact, I haven’t given them much thought, which is precisely what I look for in a diaper.

However, one detail the press materials left off was that the MomtoMom® diapers are also cheaper than the ones we were previously buying. So while I may not have found potty training success in a single day, I did find a less expensive alternative to the “name brand” we were using. I count that to be a win, too.

So here is the Giveaway…

TWO (2) lucky readers of FormerlyGracie.com will each win a $25 gift card to Safeway courtesy of MomtoMom®

(The gift cards can also be used at any of these affiliates including: Tom Thumb, Vons, Dominick’s, Genuardis, Randalls, and Pavillions)

TO ENTER: Leave a comment sharing your best potty training tip, tale, or horror story! Be sure to include your email and/or Twitter handle in your entry to be valid.

DEADLINE: Drawing held at midnight PST on Wednesday, July 20th. Please see fine print below for more rules.

For extra entries you must complete the above comment and do any or all of the following

Like Formerly Gracie Blog on Facebook

Tweet this daily and leave the link in the comments: @graceduffy is giving away two $25 @Safeway giftcards from#momtomom #diapers. Enter to win:http://ow.ly/5CWJ3 (Pl RT)

Subscribe to Formerly Gracie via RSS Feed and let me know you’ve done so in the comments.

Follow @graceduffy on Twitter.

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Fine print: One winner will be randomly selected by Random.org on July 20, 2011 and contacted via email or Twitter.  If winner comment does not meet the aforementioned criteria by containing the necessary contact information, another winner will be selected.  Winner must provide name and US mailing address for direct shipment of gift card within 24 hours of being contacted or an alternate winner will be selected.  Grace Duffy, Safeway, and MomtoMom are not responsible for items lost or delayed in shipping.

Additional disclosures: By entering this giveaway you, agree to the following. You release of Facebook of any responsibility and acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.  Any information you provide is shared with Grace Duffy, Formerly Gracie.com, and Safeway only, and not to Facebook.

It is very fitting that our rowdy and rebellious daughter chose today to declare her independence from diapers. The rest of us are just going with it…

Also, please do not send hate mail. Being home-bound and tracking piddle is not my idea of celebrating freedom and liberty. This is all her!

“Mo-mmeeeeeeee! I have to go PO-TTEEEEEEEEEEE!”

These words rush through my house as urgent and unexpected as a grass fire, and with the same potential for disaster and devastation.

It doesn’t matter if I’m elbow deep in dinner prep or coasting down the 101, I have stop whatever I’m doing and get him to the nearest toilet…. like immediately, because there’s not such thing as “thinking ahead” in the world of a three-year-old.

Now means NOW!

I try not to sigh too loudly or roll my eyes or get aggravated as I hold him over some nasty rest stop toilet… even if I DID ask him twenty times before leaving the restaurant, “Do you have to go potty? What about now? Do you have to go potty now?”… because I truly am so very proud of him.

He’s been very good about telling me when he has to go and likewise, I’ve become a pro at detecting his “tells”- the frantic darting from object to object, the nervous chattering, and of course, “Mo-mmeeeeee…..”

Scout only has the odd accident these days and it’s definitely been a process getting to this point. Only few months ago, I thought potty training would be the death of me.

At one point, I looked into purchasing Huggies… as in the company. They weren’t looking to sell.

There was one day at the playground when Scout had utterly refused to go to the bathroom only to pee in the sandbox two minutes later.

As I walked him across the field and back to the car to change clothes, a couple of Mormon boys sidled up to us.

Short-sleeved button-downs, black ties, and Bibles…

It was busy day at the park, so I must have seemed like an easy mark once I singled myself out.

Clearly, they did not notice the clenched jaw, dark muttering, or cartoon steam rising from my head, which was all I could do to express my frustrations because you’re not supposed to yell at your kid when he has an accident (or FIVE… in one day).

What you’re supposed to say is, “Oh, it’s okay, Honey. We’ll try again”… but it’s NOT okay. Not at all.

I was NOT okay with the piles of laundry or scrubbing my sofa or mopping the floor.

I was NOT okay with my house smelling like a gerbil cage or people telling me “It’ll happen. Don’t worry”.

All I wanted to do was yell at my kid about the accidents!!!

Instead, I took it out on the total strangers who unluckily decided to approach me that day.

“Look! I know what you’re selling and I’ll convert right now, if you tell me what it will take to potty train my son. Do any of your Latter Day Saints have any teachings on THAT?”

… and with that, they offered to pray for me and ran away. Quickly.

I don’t know if they prayed for me or not, but Scout certainly improved on the potty training front and I found an effective way to chase off people trying to convert me.

My past techniques for both mostly involved holy water and hissing.

I no sooner hit “publish” on my last potty training rant when Scout magically started using the potty… entirely on his own and without any prodding, reminding, or pressure from yours truly!

He doesn’t even need my help, although I tend to nonchalantly linger to make sure things remain in their appropriate place- soap on hands, water in sink, pee-pee in potty. We’ve gone a whole two weeks with dry pants and clean floors.

A WHOLE TWO WEEKS!

As you can imagine, I have been BURSTING with pride and excitement! I mean, this is a Very. Big. Deal.

To celebrate, I offered to take him to Chuck E. Cheese’s for dinner. He bugs us about going every Sunday as we’re headed to Mass.

Yeah, I was confused about that too until I realized… Go to Chuck E CHEESE’S… Go see JESUS…

I thought he’d be thrilled, but instead he said, “No Chuck E. Cheese’s, Mommy. Let’s go back to London. I want to see Big Ben!”

Those are some lofty standards, Kid, and we only have ourselves to blame…

(Oh and that silly little world-wide economic meltdown that forced us to move away in the first place. Pfff.)

I have received puh-lenty of potty training advice these last few weeks. Some of it  was sought after, but  most of it is of the “shoved in my face” variety.

I’ve heard everything from letting my kid run around naked in the yard to cutting holes in his diapers and calling them “magic pants”, but the one thing I haven’t heard is something that actually works…

(The last time we were in the yard, Scout ran into the house to pee on the floor. To his credit, he was trying to get to the bathroom, but just didn’t make it in time. He still felt the need to flush the toilet twenty times for good measure…)

(I really can’t explain how the holes in the diaper would work, but I know someone that would be more than THRILLED to tell you all about it in tremendous detail…)

I could write for days detailing our progress…. and then I’d list everything I ate today followed by a recap of a dream I had last night… YAWN!

Or I could just sum up Scout’s feelings towards the whole thing with this:

Okay, so maybe he’s not ready. Maybe he’ll never be ready and we’ll be stocking his college dorm with diapers and wipes…